I agree, private property is private property.
Amtrak conducted a major clean-up of the Northeast Corridor over the past five years or so. They cleaned up decades-old trash, like mattresses (mattresses!!) thrown out the back windows of tenaments adjacent to the ROW, that I used to see in Metroliner II days.
I have a very hard time believing any railroad would encourage the public to be on its right of way for any purpose. To do so is to encourage the idea that sometimes it is safe to be there, and what they want to communicate is exactly the opposite.
travelingengineerAm I the only frequent passenger that is saddened, if not also angered, by the considerable residential trash that is deposited along ROWs, especially at country road crossings and in scenic and bubblin' brooks?
Unfortunately, that is a two way street. I get tired of seeing buckets of rusty spikes, frayed air hoses, and derelict ties conveniently shoved by the wayside along major rights of way.
I still remember in either late 1996 or early 1997 when I was living up to Bowling Green, Ohio and a southbound Conrail freight came to a stop at the red signal across the street from my place. The dispatcher told him that the next block was showing occupied but wasn't supposed to be, allowing the crew to creep past the signal at restricted speed. Turned out that somebody had left a big trash dumpster on the tracks. Another issue that came up around that time was the IDE scanners there in town by the BGSU campus. The track goes between two student parking lots with the scanners and electronics shed about three or four vehicle lengths from the crossing. Students would park about three or four cars in that access lane next to the tracks, blocking access for the Conrail signal crews. Eventually, the university put out a notice that people were not to park there, and people stopped parking there once cars started getting towed. People just don't seem to care.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
Think your saddened and otherwise angered...you should see the delay reports on the NYC subways, and the LIRR commuter lines where service is often stopped and equipment damaged because of it.
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